Setback for Students; Delhi University cuts down Seats to 70% in MA English

This year Delhi University’s English department has reduced the seats it allots in the master’s programme. They have been lessen to almost 70%. The department head said that this move was planned as the department exceeded the figure sanctioned by the university grants commission. However the teachers claimed that they were not informed for this step.

Only 299 students were taken in for the programme this year from the first admission list against 425 for the last year. The figure 299 includes all the students from various categories.

For the students graduated from the university, Delhi University reserves 50% of seats in its masters programs. According to the procedure, students are first allotted to the departments in north and south and then admitted to the colleges offering the courses.

The teachers seem a little disturbed and confused with the department’s decision. While talking to Indian Express Sachin N, an English teacher at Dyal Singh College, said, “This was not intimated to the university’s supreme academic body. We, as academic council members, met over three days in June and the administration never revealed anything about seat reduction in English or any other discipline. The university owes us an explanation”.

However the department stays clear on the move. HoD of the English department, Christel Devdawson, said to Indian Express, “This is a course correction done by the department. Over the years, the department had been admitting more students. This was brought to our notice and there was considerable discrepancy. We wanted to correct ourselves before we were corrected and penalised by the UGC.”